While it didn’t sound like he fully agreed with his coach’s assessment of the late tying goal he allowed versus the Blue Jackets in Game 4, it also didn’t sound like he wanted to start a war of words, practically pleading with reporters to move on from the subject. (“No more. Please.”)

In case you missed it yesterday, Dan Bylsma said, “Marc knows he should have stayed in the net.”

In Fleury’s defense, on the play, Scuderi gets completely turnstiled by the 1st forechecker, stempniak lets the 2nd one blow right by him and neither Letang nor Crosby pick up Dubinsky in the slot. Hardly the best defensive effort by the Pens all around there.

r8rbhawk - Apr 25, 2014 at 7:01 PM

Agreed. Let’s say Fleury stays in the net, the Blue Jackets still get to the puck before Pens and there was still no one covering Dubinsky in the slot so Dubinsky still would have had a great scoring chance and may have still buried the shot anyway. Just a poor effort defensively by all Pens on that play.

chanceoffleury - Apr 25, 2014 at 9:07 PM

Come to think of it, you could really take any given chunk of that game and describe it as “Hardly the best defensive effort by the Pens” and probably 9 out of 10 times it would be a correct assessment.

One a Dump in like that he should go get it. Don’t let them set up in the zone, no matter how much time is left because one shot can tie it as we’ve always seen. Goalies r suppose to leave the net in the situation they r the 3rd defenseman. Good idea bad execution by fleury

I don’t think the issue is so much about playing the puck, but more so about the timing of it. You flub one of these during the regular season it’s no big deal. Heck! Even in the playoffs it’s not a big deal if your team is leading by a couple of goals, or even by 1 goal in the second period. But! The risk/reward factor is not worth it when you’re up by a goal in the dying minutes of a playoff game. The fact that he insists he did the right thing should be of concern. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wouldn’t do the same thing under the same set of circumstances. Go Pens!

Side note: of all the games/series I’ve watched this is by far the least entertaining. We’re still not seeing the Pens running on all cylinders.

It came down to execution, if he leaves the net, controls the puck, and the Pens win, non issue, but he didn’t execute. Plus the OT goal, was really SOFT. MAF’s recent playoff performances have been below par, he needs to pick it up, as do the rest of the team or the Pens are going home early, even if they do get past the Jackets.